You and I
by Thegirlontheedge
Summary: To love is to let go, but the letting go part is one of the hardest things to do. Amity is skilled in the art of letting go, but Aaron? He's been taught to keep the things he loves close, no matter if it's the prince or one of his selected.
1. Chapter 1

She would never forget the day that her mother had told her to stay away from the public swimming pool. And she'd never know why her parents hated water with the kind of passion to where they would ship their daughter off to a work camp if they saw her in a puddle. Which they did one day when Amity had just turned five there had been a had rainstorm in the Yukon, the streets had flooded, and Amity's mother was in the middle of giving birth as the rain had finally stopped pooring.

Amity was supposed to be helping her older sister and dad deliever the child, because Thomas was still too young to hold anything besides a sippy cup; but all the mucky brown water appealed to her. Amity could hear her mothers distant cries of pain as she opened the door and walked out into the cold, and harsh weather. The rain had stilled for now, but the sky was still and endless gray that promised more rain. The forests were full, the tree's rose pass the horizon. Amity remembered the world being so big, it almost surprised her now how small it was. But the thing she remembered the most was how the calm flooding of her neighborrhood road had slowy rose over the tops of her already ruined sneakers, she remembered the cold of the water. SHe remembered how it made her feel alive.

Water was in her viens, driven deep down inside her blood. When she was younger she had wanted to be a mermaid when she grew up,but she wasn't a two. She was a five, and a poor one at that. Her family could barely afford the two bedroom house they were living in at the time, four people had already lived in the house, Amity felt claustrophobic at the thought of five people. Even at the age of five she wished that the water would carry her away, but the water couldn't, or better it wouldn't.

Amity couldn't even let the water reach the top of her shins before her father ran out and got her.

"Amity you'll drown!" Was her fathers first excuse, and then it was

"Amity you'll get hypothermia!" but she didn't care either way,she still ought like hell to get out in the water. They nearly had to tie her down to the post of her mothers bed, but in the end she didn't go outside. That night she got a new baby sister, her mother said that she was her birthday present, but Amity didn't like that she had to share her birthday with this new baby.

Amity's other present was an upright bass, and she was very lucky that the people who owned the work camp would let her keep it. When she wasn'tworking she was playing, her hands would become blistered and raw from all her work, but it never stopped her from play her bass. The passion she reserved for it almost took over the passion that she had for swimming, but that passion would always be there no matter how much Amity wished that it wouldn't be.

As of now she was working with the hot sun burning the parts of her back and legs that her t-shirt and shorts left uncovered, her hair was pulled up into a huge sloppy bun to keep her from getting overly hot. The dark brown lock would usually rest against her mid back, but as of recently thay had become a pain to keep track of. She was digging the shovel into the dirt as she heard the gaurd yell for the attention of all females.

"As you all are aware of Prince River is now of Selection age, and each every one of you females must come in for your picture to be taken. You'll will be given a pain of new clithes and a shower before your picture is taken" The gaurd yelled, wiping her hand against the front of her face she frowned when her arm came away with a darker tan than she already was. A shower would be greaty appreciated, especially if it was cold.

The water was an iceberg compared to the summer heat of the Yukon, and Amity praised god for that, she still wasn;t able to wash all the dirt from her under her nails, but she had gotten the majorrity off and she no longer looked laike a homeless eight, she looked like a five, her hands had gotten long and rough over her years, her legs were long and lean, her stomach laid flat against her backbone, and despite what her fellow co workers had said would happen, she actually grew a decent pair of boobs. She was handed a black dress, it cut off at her knees and had a very scooped neck, her cleavledge was more noticable than her face.

But yet she didn't care, because she had the possibilty of meeting the prince. She didn't even know that Illea still had a prince, none of the girl or boys did. They ad no televisons or news papers, just books and the things they had brought with them when they were younger.

"Smile!" The photographer said as a blinded light nearly startled Amity half to death.

"It's all blurry we have to take another one," the phtotgrapher spoke, she didn't want to take another picture because the flash of light scared her but she sat still for the second Photo.

"Perfect!" The photographer yelled as he looked at her image.

After her picture was taken she was told that she could head over to the dining hall to grab lunch and then she could either go back to work or play with her friends. Amity's only friend was Paris, which was the name she had given her Bass. But today was different, the dining hall had red covers over their seats, and it actually smelled like something good was being made, like hamburgers instead of their usual twice a day serving of oatmeal. Amity was estatic that dinner was something that you had to chew.

"Who do you think is going to be selected?" A girl asked, she was sitting to the left of Amity talking to some red head who shrugged her shoulders.

"Who do you think it'll be?" The girl asked her.

"I don't know," Amity replied, her vioced cracked a little from not being used all day and the parchness of her throat.

"Nobody knows!" The girl groaned. Amity finished up her meal and went into her room, the polished oak of her Bass starred at her as she entered the room, she was glad that here neighbor wasn't at her compartment to complain about the noise as Amity played.

"That sounds beautiful." The words nearly made Amity drop the Bass to the floor, but thank god that she had caught it.

"Um, thanks." Amity said as fast as she could, fixing up her stuff and resting the bass against it's stand as she looked up at the intruding stranger.

Her first thought was that he was beautiful. His black hair was cropped against the side of his head that suggested that it would be curly if he grew it out more, and he had the brightest blue eyes Amity had ever seen. In a royal gaurds uniform he looked like a knight right out of a fable.

"You're Amity Richards correct?" The gaurd then asked, she nodded her head yes, and she could have sworn that she saw his eyes soften with sadness.

"Congratulations," His voice was deep and soft.

"You've been selected," Amity looked outside, she was surprised when she say that the sun risen outside.

"How long have I been playing?" She asked herself, the gaurd laughed at this.

"Nearly a week, at least thats what the girl next to you said." It made sense to her though, she had saved up enough sick time that people wouldn't check on her for weeks if she had died.

"Hah," she said aimlessly, pushing a piece of her hair out of her face.

"What do I do?" She asked, and there was a twinkle in his eyes.

"Follow me," he said. And so she did.


	2. Chapter 2

AARON

Most people thought that they were brothers, not beacuse they looked alike but because they never stopped fighting. Aaron would have thought to fear his sometimes hourly fights with the prince, but it had been five years since he had been drafted into the royal gaurd and hi and the prince had never been closer friends.

According to Arron the prince a long lentghy bastard that couldn't tell the difference between the crown and his ass, but that was a biased opnion, and there was obvious differences between the crown and the princes butt.

The Prince had blonge hair that fanned out further than what was a llowed the gaurds, curling to the tip of his nose Aaron was ofter jealous that his mane had to be kept close to his head; otherwise he had been for sure that all the maids would come running to his shared apartment beneath the castle. And for once he would get to kick his roomate out and not visa versa. But the day never came and Aarn found himself sleeping in the middle of the hallway being kicked awake by a green eyed, lanky, bastard.

"Today's the day." The prince had said upon one brutal morning.

"What's with this fricken day?" Aaron had asked back rather angry, the floor had actually been comfortable and his roomate had been kind enough to let him take his blanket.

"You and a few of the other gaurds are going out to get my girls." The prince said slyly, winking down at Aaron whojut groaned in response.

"Can't get them yourself aye? Need some one to pick them up for ya. The poor girls are going to be so dissapointed when they find out it's you they get and not us." Aaron smirked up at the prnce, whose response was to kick Aaronin the groin.

"I could get more girls than you could," was the princes response. And it was true also, money and power would allways win over looks, and looks would always win over personality. But that didn't matter to dear Aaron, he only wanted one girl. He hadn't met her yet but he knew that he would know her the second that he laid eyes on her.

"Sure you could you stud," Aaron replied to the prince after he had recovered enough from the kick to stand up and give a friendly hit to the princes face.

"You're such an ass." The prince said to Aaron as one of the maids snuck out from Aaron's room. Aaron and the prince said hello and wished her a good day, the maid blushed and said ditto, then scurried off on her way to go finish the final cleaning of the selected girls rooms.

"You must be losing you charm if you've been with the same maid for two weeks." aaron said to Charles, his pllayboy roomate who was every girls wet dream with his fricken biceps the size of everest and abs that even the prince and everest envied, Charles tanned skin nd dark mencing eyes and nicely cut hair made him an adonis, but what made him an ass was that he knew that he was good looking and he never let anyone not know.

"TWO WEEKS!" the prince said amazed, even though his voice held a sarcastic tone.

"That's a new record for you, is someone developing feelings?" The prince mocked and Charles put his hand on the princes face,which instantly shut him up. Aaron was pulling on a new pair of pants as this ordeal was going on, and he laughed at the princes wariness for the things that Charles hand had probably done during the night, and from the sounds that had escaed under the doorway during the night there was a lot of possibilties.

"Yes I like Marie, shut up I'm not going soft she's just excellent in bed, god the things she can do,and let me tell you..." Charles started before he was rudly interupted by Aaron.

"I'd stop talking before prude boy here forgets how to walk, and anyways we don't want to hear about how she complemented you. And anyways you'd lie half the time about it. I could hear that at leas half of her hollars were fake." But they weren't and Charles knew this, so he just shrugged his shoulders, and then he stood up, still naked, and walked to the shower. This was not something that the boys were un used to, Charles was very proud of himself if he could rule the world naked he would, but he had not been born to better blood lines, so he had to protect it naked, in his sleep that it, other wise he was sadly clothed in a pressed white shirt with a blue jacket that had memorable ribbons along the arms and across the chest, a matching set of blue pants. He looked like a heavenly crature sent down to grace the female population of the world.

"Why are you still here?" Aaron groaned at the prince when he saw im laying down on is bed flipping though the Illean report.

"I told you already." The prince said.

"You haven't told me squat," Aaron said as he flopped into his chair, thirty minutes before he had to report to his C.O. and get his prders for the week, god did he hate mondays.

"Yeah I did, I said today is the day the selection process starts and a bunch of you gaurds go get the selected." Aarongroaned after this, the selection was starting? He could already see Mr. Princy poos ego expanding to the size of mars as the selction happend, and to be quite honest, it was notn a pretty sight.

"Are you psyched?" Aaron asked the prince, who shrugged his shoulders.

"I won't know nything about the girls for a couple days, the gaurds that get sent out have forums and medical checks they have to do on the girls before they get here. It'll be at least a week before the girls actually head off to the plane." He frowned, Aaron watched him with the uptmost attention.

"You're really excited about this aren't you?" He asked him, and the prince nodded.

"I'm sure you'll chose the right girl." Aaron said, as he slipped the report out of the princes hands, todays headline ran "**ALL GIRLS HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR PRINCE RIVER"**, it seemed like a boring article so he gave it back to River.

"But what if the right girl isn't in the lot?" River asked.

"Well then you'll just have another selection." Aaron sai as he patted River on the shoulder, he then looked at the clock. He had five minutes until he had to get to his C.O. So he motioned for River to follow him, which he did.

"BUt then what if the right girl is in the selected that I have right now and she gets sent away?" River was just a little bit annoying.

"Well you'd just call her back."

"Uggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" River grianed as he slammed himself into the wall and slid onto the floor.

"How do I know if they'll even like me?" River roaned and Aaron laughed.

"They're not going to like you if you act like a girl, and anyways the gaurds will probably snatch them up before you can." Aaron said jokingly as he pulled River back up into standing position. River just shrigged his shoulders and decided to suck it up, turning the next right so that he could go to the dinig hall with Aaron even though there was a nice breakfeast tat he had already eaton laying on his bed. Aaron envied River and the way he could never stop eating fod and not gain anything but height. Lucky royal bastard, Aaron thought to himself as he quickly grabbed and pple and headed off to his C.O.

River was very excited that Aaron would get to go to the Yukon and pick up on of his girls. It mean that he could page Aaron and Aaron could give him all the details he could about the seleted he had been assigned to pick up.

But Aaron refused to do so saying that he had to get to know the girls on his own terms, which made River pout and Aaron laugh. Aaron was very lucky that one of the maids (Most likely Maria by the way Charles bed sheets had been rearranged) had packed him a suit case and left it on his bed,so that he could be driven out with a group of his fellow gaurd mates to the airplane. River nd Aaron were forced to say their goodbyes at the castle, and neither of them had shread a tear.

Aaron nver liked heights, he had fallen off a bride when he was little and was very lucky to be alive today. BUt because of his fear of heights he closed his eyes and soon found himself in a deep slumber. Only to be awoken when Ken, one of the gaurds with red hair and green eyes, rudly woke him up and told him that his stop had arrived. There was only three gaurds left on the plane when he left, so it meant that he was very far away from the castle.

He was then escorted to the work camp the deguised itself by calling it "Miss May's boarding school for the behaviorally challenged," so that his first thought was that the girl he was sent to get was deolpmentaly slow, but as he crossed the grounds, with the heavy heat of the sun on his back he figured that the girl would have to be if she lived her.

Aaron had sweated more in the hour that it took him to walk to the registration office than he had durng bootcamp. Which made him embaressed, and he planned to sign up for a few more of the excerise classes than the four he did in a week. The office wasa blue room that consister of a window seperating an office worker from the and another window that was open that was nex to the freshy painted white door.

"I am here to pick up the selected girl..." He looked down at the paper that held thegirls name, he wasn't allowed to see the pictures, those would be handed to the prince today and he, as well as the other gaurds, would have to go off of I.D's to prove who the girls were.

"Amity Richards." He said, and the old lady wearing a pink moth balled sweater behind the counter smiled and winked at him as she handed him the paper work that held her adress and contact info.

She lived in Housing C room C112, and from what he couldtellit was thefurthest away housing. He thought it was odd that he couldn't see anyone outside, or that he couldn;t see anyone inside the buildings either. He would have thought the place had been deserted untill he accidently wandered into the dining hall where he found a bunch of amazingly tan fit kids running around and eating oatmeal. Almost everyone stopped to look at him. They had never seen a royal gaurd before. There was not much of a difference between Aaron and a lot of the boys that worked here besides the fact that they had longer hair. He told a lot of the males to join the army, and they slapped him on the back and told him that they'd see him soon.

Aaron had a big guy named Jeromme lead him to Amity's room, Aaron was almost entranced as he heard the sounds of the bass being played, he couldn't name the song, and to be honest, he wasn't een sure it was a song, it sounded like a clash of emotions and an endless longing being transmitted through an instrument, but nevertheless, it sounded beautiful.

"She's the one with the dyingcat sound in her room." Jeromme said as he noddded towards a door. Aaron looked at the boy with distastee, none of these kids knew what music really was appereantly.

"Thank you for leadingme to her dorm." Aaron said, he gave Jeromme a pat on his back, and then knocked on the door. Jeromme walked away, mumbling something about the girls stupid instrumental practice lasting for three days. There was no response so he tried the dorr handle, which opened the door and then fell off into his hand, the girl however did not notice the sudden intrusion of Aarons presense.

There was the reminates of a bun on the top of her head, but long strands of dark hair had fallen into her face and around her body. Her legs were long,and lean, almost perfect to him, besides that there was a long jagged scar on the right side of her right leg. She wore a black dress the cut off mid thigh, and had long sleevs, her arms were strong as she ran them across her instrument with the bow, she had a drop of sweat beading at her forehead, and her brows were reased as she focused on what she was playing. Aaron couldn't see her eyes so he continued studying her face, even though it was doing funny things to his heart.

She has soft pink lips, he thought. He wondered how soft they would feel against his own, but that was a bad thought so he instanly chided himself. She is meant for River, not for him. The thought though instanly saddened him, but he went back to looking at her and felt like a totle waves had crashe into his heart. Her stomach laid against her ribsto where she didn't look to skinny she just looked fit.

She is beautiful. Was his second thought about her, he had alrwady told himself to forget the first. Suddenly, as if the wind blew in her music went long and lonely, and he felt like clapping but it seemed odd.

"That sounds beautiful." He said, and the girl nearly dropped her instument, but by luck she caught it just before it crashed to the floor. She places it against a stand and the pulls back someof her hair, I wonder if she knows she's blushing.

"Um, Thanks." She say's and he almost doesn't hear it because her voice os so soft and fast, he nearly wants to capture it in his mouth, or to hear it yell out...He tells himself to shut up and get to the point.

"You're Amity Richards, correct?" He asks, hoping that she says no. She nods her head yes and Aaron's heart drops sixty feet.

"Congratulations." He say's softly.

"You;ve been selected." She looks ou the window to see the sun has started to set.

"How long have I been playing?" He doesn't know if she's being rhetorical or not so he answers her question.

"Nearly a week, at least thats what the girl next to you said," feeling that if he told her a guy had actually lead hm her would frighten her he lies, and she just smiles and runs her hand through her hair to realize that there is a bunstill stuck up there, so reaches p and undoes the whole thing. Aaron has to close his eyes as she does so, not knowing if he can trust himself.

"Hah," She lets out, and then looks at him as he opens his eyes. She's pure goddess, he thinks.

"What do I do?" She askes, and his brain comes to life with the things she could do for him, but he mentally berates himself.

"Follow me," He says and s she does he smiles at himself. Even though it is a sad smile, he is glad that he can get to know her, even if it's only the questions on the paper he has to ask her, and the ruls he has to give her he is excited. For three days she is his.

He leads her to one of the more private cabins that have been reserved for Amity because some of the answers to the questions are confidental.

"You should get some rest,"he tells her upon entering the small cabin.

"I'm going to take a shower first and then I will." She smiles, and he has to lose her yes because he doesn't want to be thinking those thoughts.

"Okay," He smiles.

"Tomorrow we will start the informational tasks," She wishes him a good night as he goes off to find his room, but there is only one bed in the cabin, and much to his dismay he grabs a pillow and a blanket from the closet and oes to sleep on the couch. At least it's better than what he's used to, the floor.


End file.
